February 23, 2018

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2FsmgwW
via IFTTT

English @ the Movies: 'Let You Down'

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2CEJM6M
via IFTTT

'A Pair of Silk Stockings' by Kate Chopin

Our story is called "A Pair of Silk Stockings." It was written by Kate Chopin. Here is Barbara Klein with the story. Little Missus Sommers one day found herself the unexpected owner of fifteen dollars. It seemed to her a very large amount of money. The way it filled up her worn money holder gave her a feeling of importance that she had not enjoyed for years. The question of investment was one she considered carefully. For a day or two she walked around in a dreamy state as she thought about her choices. She did not wish to act quickly and do anything she might regret. During the quiet hours of the night she lay awake considering ideas. A dollar or two could be added to the price she usually paid for her daughter Janie's shoes.  This would guarantee they would last a great deal longer than usual. She would buy cloth for new shirts for the boys.  Her daughter Mag should have another dress. And still there would be enough left for new stockings — two pairs per child. What time that would save her in always repairing old stockings! The idea of her little family looking fresh and new for once in their lives made her restless with excitement. The neighbors sometimes talked of the "better days" that little Missus Sommers had known before she had ever thought of being Missus Sommers. She herself never looked back to her younger days. She had no time to think about the past. The needs of the present took all her energy. Missus Sommers knew the value of finding things for sale at reduced prices. She could stand for hours making her way little by little toward the desired object that was selling below cost. She could push her way if need be. But that day she was tired and a little bit weak. She had eaten a light meal—no! She thought about her day. Between getting the children fed and the house cleaned, and preparing herself to go shopping, she had forgotten to eat at all! When she arrived at the large department store, she sat in front of an empty counter. She was trying to gather strength and courage to push through a mass of busy shoppers. She rested her hand upon the counter. She wore no gloves. She slowly grew aware that her hand had felt something very pleasant to touch. She looked down to see that her hand lay upon a pile of silk stockings. A sign nearby announced that they had been reduced in price. A young girl who stood behind the counter asked her if she wished to examine the silky leg coverings. She smiled as if she had been asked to inspect diamond jewelry with the aim of purchasing it. But she went on feeling the soft, costly items. Now she used both hands, holding the stockings up to see the light shine through them. Two red marks suddenly showed on her pale face. She looked up at the shop girl. "Do you think there are any size eights-and-a-half among these?" There were a great number of stockings in her size. Missus Sommers chose a black pair and looked at them closely. "A dollar and ninety-eight cents," she said aloud. "Well, I will buy this pair." She handed the girl a five dollar bill and waited for her change and the wrapped box with the stockings. What a very small box it was! It seemed lost in her worn old shopping bag. Missus Sommers then took the elevator which carried her to an upper floor into the ladies' rest area.  In an empty corner, she replaced her cotton stockings for the new silk ones. For the first time she seemed to be taking a rest from the tiring act of thought. She had let herself be controlled by some machine-like force that directed her actions and freed her of responsibility. How good was the touch of the silk on her skin! She felt like lying back in the soft chair and enjoying the richness of it. She did for a little while. Then she put her shoes back on and put her old stockings into her bag. Next, she went to the shoe department, sat down and waited to be fitted. The young shoe salesman was unable to guess about her background. He could not resolve her worn, old shoes with her beautiful, new stockings. She tried on a pair of new boots. She held back her skirts and turned her feet one way and her head another way as she looked down at the shiny, pointed boots. Her foot and ankle looked very lovely. She could not believe that they were a part of herself. She told the young salesman that she wanted an excellent and stylish fit. She said she did not mind paying extra as long as she got what she desired. After buying the new boots, she went to the glove department.  It was a long time since Missus Sommers had been fitted with gloves. When she had bought a pair they were always "bargains," so cheap that it would have been unreasonable to have expected them to be fitted to her hand. Now she rested her arm on the counter where gloves were for sale. A young shop girl drew a soft, leather glove over Missus Sommers's hand. She smoothed it down over the wrist and buttoned it neatly.  Both women lost themselves for a second or two as they quietly praised the little gloved hand. There were other places where money might be spent. A store down the street sold books and magazines. Missus Sommers bought two costly magazines that she used to read back when she had been able to enjoy other pleasant things. She lifted her skirts as she crossed the street. Her new stockings and boots and gloves had worked wonders for her appearance. They had given her a feeling of satisfaction, a sense of belonging to the well-dressed crowds. She was very hungry. Another time she would have ignored the desire for food until reaching her own home. But the force that was guiding her would not permit her to act on such a thought. There was a restaurant at the corner. She had never entered its doors.  She had sometimes looked through the windows. She had noted the white table cloths, shining glasses and waiters serving wealthy people. When she entered, her appearance created no surprise or concern, as she had half feared it might. She seated herself at a small table. A waiter came at once to take her order. She ordered six oysters, a chop, something sweet, a glass of wine and a cup of coffee.  While waiting to be served she removed her gloves very slowly and set them beside her. Then she picked up her magazine and looked through it. It was all very agreeable. The table cloths were even more clean and white than they had seemed through the window. And the crystal drinking glasses shined even more brightly. There were ladies and gentlemen, who did not notice her, lunching at the small tables like her own. A pleasing piece of music could be heard, and a gentle wind was blowing through the window. She tasted a bite, and she read a word or two and she slowly drank the wine. She moved her toes around in the silk stockings. The price of it all made no difference. When she was finished, she counted the money out to the waiter and left an extra coin on his tray. He bowed to her as if she were a princess of royal blood. There was still money in her purse, and her next gift to herself presented itself as a theater advertisement. When she entered the theater, the play had already begun.  She sat between richly dressed women who were there to spend the day eating sweets and showing off their costly clothing. There were many others who were there only to watch the play. It is safe to say there was no one there who had the same respect that Missus Sommers did for her surroundings. She gathered in everything —stage and players and people -- in one wide sensation. She laughed and cried at the play. She even talked a little with the women. One woman wiped her eyes with a small square of lace and passed Missus Sommers her box of candy. The play was over, the music stopped, the crowd flowed outside. It was like a dream ended. Missus Sommers went to wait for the cable car. A man with sharp eyes sat opposite her.  It was hard for him to fully understand what he saw in her expression. In truth, he saw nothing -- unless he was a magician. Then he would sense her heartbreaking wish that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever. "A Pair of Silk Stockings" was written by Kate Chopin.  Your storyteller was Barbara Klein.  Dana Demange adapted and produced it. Download activities to help you understand this story here. Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. If you were given a large amount of money, how would you spend it? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ QUIZ   _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   investment - n. something that you buy with the idea that it will increase in value, usefulness, etc. ankle- n. the joint where the foot joins the leg stylish- adj.  following the popular style; fashionable oyster- n. a type of shellfish that has a rough shell with two parts and that is eaten both cooked and raw chop- n.  a small piece of meat that usually includes a bone from an animal's side sensation- n.  a particular feeling or effect that your body experiences lace- n. a very thin and light cloth made with patterns of holes ​

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2F18MKJ
via IFTTT

Japanese Man Wins Legal Right to 13 Children Born in Thailand

  A Japanese businessman who won a child custody case in Thailand is largely unknown in his home country. Mitsutoki Shigeta is the son of the owner of Japanese telecommunications and insurance company Hikari Tsushin. As a major shareholder of the company, he earns millions of dollars a year. But in Japan, he generally stays away from publicity. On Tuesday, a Thai court gave Shigeta legal custody of his 13 children who were born to women in Thailand. Many news media aggressively reported on the babies after they were found in a Bangkok apartment building in 2014. But the reporting stopped after his father’s company reportedly threatened legal action against the media. Japanese newspapers no longer use Mitsutoki Shigeta’s name in their stories. He is simply described as a 28-year-old man. Information from the Thai court, doctors and a fertility center has done little to answer questions about Shigeta and the children. A Japanese lawyer who was said to represent the man refused to talk with the Associated Press about him. Officials at Hikari Tsushin were not available for comment. The company started as a business telephone and office supplies company. It now is on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and controls more than 180 smaller companies. Japanese newspapers reported in 2014 that Shigeta said he wanted to have 100 to 1,000 children. He added that if he were successful, it would cost millions of dollars. He wanted to buy equipment to freeze his "high-quality" sperm at home, so that he could continue producing children even in his old age, reports claimed. Thai officials have rejected human trafficking and other criminal charges against him. Mariam Kukunashvili founded the New Light fertility clinic in Thailand. She sought out some of the women who became pregnant. Kukunashvili told the AP in 2014 that Shigeta told her "he wanted 10 to 15 babies a year and that he wanted to continue the baby-making process until he's dead." She said he also told her that he wanted to compete in an election and win by using his big family for voting. Shigeta's actions, along with some others, caused Thailand to ban commercial surrogacy for non-Thais. That law sent people seeking surrogate mothers to Cambodia, which also later banned it. Japanese newspapers reported that Shigeta's parents were seen kissing a baby when they visited their son in Cambodia, where he also had several children by surrogate mothers. The Thai court said Tuesday that Shigeta plans to send the children to an international school. It also said he is preparing a house for them in Tokyo where they will be cared for by nurses and babysitters. His lawyer in Thailand said he simply wants a big family. I'm Susan Shand.   Susan Shand adapted this story based on the Associated Press report. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   custody – n. the legal right to take care of a child surrogate – n. a person or thing that takes the place or performs the duties of someone or something else insurance – n. an agreement in which a person makes payments to a company and the company promises to pay money if the person is injured or dies shareholder – n. someone who owns shares of stock in a company or business fetus – n. a human being in the final weeks of development, before it is born sperm - n. male reproductive fluid commercial – adj. related to the buying and selling of goods and services arrange – v. to plan or to organize surrogate – n. a person or thing that takes the place or performs the duties of someone or something else nurse - n. a person who is trained to care for sick or injured people and who usually works in a hospital or doctor's office

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2GGXJ6O
via IFTTT

Show Examines Native American Imagery in US Culture

  An 1830 law forced thousands of American Indians from their lands in the southern United States to areas west of the Mississippi River. Expressions of support for the law are part of advertising for a new exhibit about Native Americans. The exhibit, called “Americans,” opened last month at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. It explores the use of American Indian imagery over the years. Two centuries ago, some people imagined a country free of American Indians. Others thought the removal of the Indians would lead to expanded wealth from cotton fields, where millions of blacks worked as slaves. Cecile Ganteaume, a co-curator of the exhibit, admits the show is provocative. Critics have praised the exhibit. They say it pushes the national debate over American Indian imagery and sports teams named the Chiefs, Braves and Blackhawks. Washington is home to the National Football League’s Washington Redskins. The team’s colorful logo on one wall is meant to make visitors think about why it has been described as a unifying force in D.C. and offensive. Yet some people say the exhibit, and its website, fail to capture the violence and horror of the Indian Removal Act. The advertising is a strange way to explain an effort that lasted many years, said Ben Barnes, second chief of the Shawnee Tribe. He noted that at one time, one-fifth of all federal money went to the act’s enforcement. The law led to the deaths of thousands of people who were marched from their homes without full payment for the value of their land. And it affected far more tribes than the five described on the museum’s website, Barnes said. “It made it seem like it was a trivial matter that turned out best for everyone,” he said. “I cannot imagine an exhibit at the newly established African-American museum that talked about how economically wonderful slavery was for the South.” Ganteaume said the website doesn’t cover the subject in detail and neither it nor the exhibit is meant to dismiss the experiences of American Indians. Instead, she said, it asks people to recognize and explore their relationship with American Indians. The exhibit has hundreds of images of American Indians on alcohol bottles, a bag of sugar, motor oil, and other forms of product advertising. Several videos show how the imagery is a large part of American television and film. But when historic or cartoonish images are the only pictures people have of what it means to be Native (American), they can’t imagine American Indians in the modern world, said Julie Reed. Reed is a history professor at the University of Tennessee and a member of the Cherokee tribe. “Even when I’m standing in front of students, identified as a Cherokee professor, making the point from Day 1 that I’m still here and other Cherokee people are still here, I still get midterm exams that talk about the…annihilation of Indian peoples,” she said. Ganteaume said that while Native people have strong histories in other countries, the United States is more likely to focus on images of them. The exhibit expands on what is well-known to most Americans: the Trail of Tears, Pocahontas and the Battle of Little Bighorn. A film on the American celebration of Thanksgiving starts with a once widely used television screen test showing an Indian head. It goes on to question the importance of Thanksgiving when the country already had Independence Day. Eden Slone, a graduate student in museum studies, said she liked the exhibit’s design and interactive touch tables. “I think the exhibition was carried out well and it definitely makes you think of Native American imagery,” she said. “When I see images like that, I’ll think more about where it came from.” Reed, the University of Tennessee professor and Cherokee woman, fears people will get the wrong idea about the Indian Removal Act from the website. Yet she plans to visit the museum. Reed said she will go because it is important to be fair and look at it before it is criticized. She added the exhibit may be better than the website. I'm Susan Shand.   Felicia Fonseca wrote this story for the Associated Press. Susan Shand adapted her report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   provocative – adj. causing discussion, thought or argument co-curator – n. someone who helps to set up or organize an exhibit logo – n. an image or picture that is used to identify a company and appears on its products trivial – adj. not important cartoon – n. a picture or image meant as a humorous comment on something or a series of images in an animated film annihilation – n. to destroy (something or someone) completely focus – v. to direct one’s attention on something or someone interactive – adj. designed to react to the actions or commands of a user  

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2EYsC9v
via IFTTT

Transparency International: Corruption Still a Problem in Africa

African nations appear at the bottom of Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index. Transparency gave the East African nation of Somalia its lowest rating on the list for the 12th time in 12 years. Transparency is a non-governmental anti-corruption organization. It rated a total of 180 countries on how corrupt their governments and public services appear to be. The ratings are based on findings by experts and public opinion studies. The index uses a 100-point scale to show corruption levels. More than two-thirds of the countries received less than 50 points, with an average rating of 43.  African nations had an average rating of 32 points. No nation has ever earned a perfect rating of 100. New Zealand leads the 2017 index with 89 points. Somalia received nine. Kate Muwoki is Transparency International’s expert on Southern Africa. She says most African governments are failing to deal with corruption. However, she says there are some leaders who have invested in systemic action to change behavior. Muwoki spoke to VOA from Berlin, where Transparency International has its headquarters. She praised a number of African countries where corruption does not appear to be a major problem. They include Botswana, Seychelles, Cabo Verde, Rwanda and Namibia. All five received a rating of over 50 in the latest index. She also noted that South Sudan is near Somalia at the bottom of the list. And Transparency identified rising corruption levels in Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Yet Muwoki suggested that things may change because the African Union and several African leaders have made clean governance a top goal. Major resignations The past year will be remembered as a time when several African leaders accused of questionable activities left office. No fewer than four heads of state suspected of financial crimes resigned over the past 12 months. They are Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, Angola’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, and Jacob Zuma of South Africa. A high-level corruption case also affected the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. He resigned this month following anti-government protests. Yet the corruption-accused president of the Democratic Republic of Congo has repeatedly postponed elections. And the leaders of Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, and Cameroon have all remained in power while being suspected of wrongdoing. Corruption investigations continue into current and former officials across the continent. ​Signs of change The new president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has made fighting corruption a major goal of his administration. This week, he called for an investigation of the behavior of top government officials, starting with himself. “Now, if there ever has been anything that many South Africans would like to have line of sight of, (it) is the lifestyle audit of their public representatives. Now that is something that I believe we have to do, and this will be done starting with the executive of the country, yes, we will go in that way...” In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that all national property recovered in an anti-corruption campaign would be sold. He said the money from the sale will go the country’s treasury. Buhari is the chairman of the AU anti-corruption effort.   Transparency International’s Kate Muwoki says her group has noted and welcomed these developments. But she is urging people to keep up the pressure by shining light on suspected corruption. I'm Caty Weaver.   Anita Powell reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted her report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   perception – n. the way you think about or understand something index – n. a list or record of something scale – n. a group of numbers that is used to show the size, strength, or quality of something — usually singular audit – v. an official examination of one’s behavior or activities executive – n. a person who directs or supervises something; a directing or controlling office We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.  

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2HHmJMf
via IFTTT

What It Takes - Roger Bannister

00:00:02    OPRAH WINFREY: "Hattie Mae, this child is gifted," and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.   00:00:08    ROGER BANNISTER: If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another chance.   00:00:14    LAURYN HILL: It all was so clear. It was just, like, the picture started to form itself.   00:00:19    DESMOND TUTU: There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.   00:00:32    CAROL BURNETT (quoting CARRIE HAMILTON): “Every day I wake up and decide, today I'm going to love my life. Decide.”   00:00:35    JOHNNY CASH: My advice is, if they're going to break your leg once when you go in that place, stay out of there.   00:00:40    JAMES MICHENER: And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for, but boy, you’d better not miss them.   00:00:53    ALICE WINKLER: This is What It Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement. I’m Alice Winkler, and thanks for joining us.   00:01:02    ROGER BANNISTER: The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it's filled with reversals — what you think may happen doesn't happen. A champion is beaten; an unknown becomes a champion.   00:01:17    ALICE WINKLER: For the next 30 minutes, I invite you to try to forget about that long list of calamities conspiring to ruin your enjoyment of the Rio Olympics, not to mention the health and welfare of the athletes themselves. Instead, soak in this inspiring story from a simpler time, before the Zika Virus and state-sponsored doping, a story of the runner who broke the four-minute mile, Sir Roger Bannister.   00:01:50    ROGER BANNISTER: Well, I must be the international athlete who trained least.   00:01:55    In other words, I had worked out from my knowledge of physiology what was the minimum amount of training that would be needed to continue to improve year by year.   00:02:07    ALICE WINKLER: Sir Roger Bannister is 87 as I record this episode and living in Oxford, England. He ran in the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, but that’s not where he smashed through the four-minute barrier, a feat that challenged people’s idea of what was humanly possible. No, Sir Roger Bannister’s greatest athletic achievement came two years later. Cue the historic newsreel.   00:02:33    ANNOUNCER: Twenty-five-year-old Roger Bannister, third from the left, gets away at the Iffley Ground, Oxford for the race of his life. For years, he has dreamed of becoming the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes, and now, with Chris Brasher setting the pace in front, he’s decided that this is the right moment.     00:02:48     ALICE WINKLER: Bannister was studying medicine at the time, working toward becoming a neurologist, which he did, by the way, and that wasn’t the only unusual thing about the path this lanky middle-distance runner had taken.   00:03:02     ANNOUNCER: Bannister, a superb tactician, has suffered some criticism in the past for adopting his own rather unorthodox training methods, but they're paying dividends now. Despite the slight wind, he’s clocking great time.   00:03:14     ALICE WINKLER: We’ll get back to that newsreel. No rush. We know how the race ends, but I want to walk the story back 15 years before it began, to 1939, when little Roger Bannister was living in a suburb of London, his family soon to move to Bath. I said a minute ago that it was a simpler time, but it wasn’t, really, in many respects. World War II was about to begin.   00:03:40     ROGER BANNISTER: Well, I’ve always been very impatient and I, frankly, found life, age 10, in this suburb and at this school, boring. And I can remember, age 9, having the awful thought, as it seems now, looking back on it: “A war! That should liven things up a bit.”   00:04:11     The first air raid siren sounded when I was still in London, and I ran back from the park, where I'd been playing, home, hearing this siren. And of course, nothing happened for six months. We've got what we call the Phony War.   00:04:28    MARC PACHTER:    The Phony War.   00:04:29    ROGER BANNISTER: But when I went to Bath, there were some reprisal bombings, and our house was actually bombed. And the roof fell in, and we were sitting in the basement, under the stairs of the basement, and we were quite safe.   00:04:46    MARC PACHTER:    Yes.   00:04:46    ROGER BANNISTER: But it brought home realization. In two nights, 400 people were killed in this relatively small town, and so on the third night, I persuaded my parents that we should leave. There was no raid expected, but as it had happened on two nights, we went out of Bath and camped overnight about four miles away in a wood. But my discovery in Bath was of the countryside.   00:05:15    I loved the countryside. I cycled from the age of sort of 10 to 15 all around Bath and Somerset and Cheddar Gorge and the sights of castles and country houses. And I remember that as a time of freedom, often perhaps a bit solitary, but great excitement of discovery and exploration.   00:05:53    With my impatience, I think I enjoyed running to get about more quickly.   00:06:01    And I never found it any effort, and so I was training myself when I went to school in Bath. I lived on the top of one hill, and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car. We didn't have any cars during the war, so that to-and-from school was itself a training, which you might think is now the equivalent of a Kenyan farmer.   00:06:30    So, you know, my childhood was a vigorous one.   00:06:34    MARC PACHTER: Yes, yes.   00:06:34    ROGER BANNISTER: And the concept of a family holiday was going to a guesthouse, usually in the Lake District or Wales, where walking was part of the holiday. You did walk.   00:06:49    ALICE WINKLER: Bannister’s parents were not well-educated. They hadn’t been able to afford university, but they prized education and books, and instilled in their son a yearning for more.   00:07:02    ROGER BANNISTER: I wanted to have some success. I came from quite a simple origin, without any great privilege, and so I also wanted to make a mark, and it wasn’t, I suppose, until I was about 15 that I appeared in a race. I was playing rugby and the other games English schoolchildren do, and there was an event which was planned in which races were run, and I simply just won these by a very considerable margin. And so everybody thought, "Oh, this is rather special."   00:07:48    ALICE WINKLER: But what about his parents? What did they think about his talent for running?   00:07:52    ROGER BANNISTER: They were supportive, but at the time I was about to break a world record and had already become well-known, my mother used to say, "Well, it’s all very well, this running business, but I hope it doesn’t distract you from your work as a medical student."   00:08:15    So, in other words, I got the impression that, for her, the only important thing was for me to become a doctor, which, as it were, was a career which had not been possible in her generation and in her society.   00:08:34    ALICE WINKLER: Sir Roger says he never had any doubt that he would become a doctor, and he never had any illusions about his talent for running.   00:08:43    ROGER BANNISTER: Yes. It’s just a kind of gift that you have, to be able to do this better than other people, but it shouldn’t mean that you're something very, very special. Because I suppose it has its intellectual element — or running has. Sport has its intellectual element, but the more important basic quality is a physical one, which is probably genetic.   00:09:20    ALICE WINKLER: Roger Bannister was interviewed twice for the Academy of Achievement, and both times he was exceedingly humble. The first time, in 2000, he spoke with Marc Pachter, who was then the head of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. Two years later, he spoke with journalist Gail Eichenthal. You’re hearing excerpts of both these conversations in the podcast. Okay, so with that little bit of business behind us, back to how Roger Bannister became a runner so beloved, so great, he was named Sports Illustrated Magazine’s very first Sportsman of the Year.   00:09:58    Of course, now called Sportsperson of the Year. Yes, Bannister had a natural love of running. Yes, he found it easy, and yes, he was getting some nice recognition for his speed, and then his father took him to see a meet.   00:10:15    ROGER BANNISTER: There are two parts to running. There is the simple enjoyment as you run through the countryside and — a pure pleasure without any target — and this showed me a kind of forum in which success could be crystallized; those who were watching applauded, and there was a gladiatorial interplay between the athletes.   00:10:45    And I watched an English runner called Sydney Wooderson, who had held the world record for the mile, and it had always been a British preoccupation to hold this mile record. There was a series of English runners who had held it. And I watched him after the end of the war, in 1945, running against the world record holders from Sweden.   00:11:12    And he was not in the same league, but he came up and challenged the world record holder on the last bend. The challenge was easily fought off by the Swede, but there was a feeling of courage that he showed in tackling a Swede who looked physically much stronger, more elegant, and more powerful.   00:11:40    Wooderson was a rather small man, but this exchange, this battle, was, I think, the thing which led me to go on from simple running for pleasure to running with this target of records, Olympic Games, and other events in mind.   00:12:01    ALICE WINKLER: The year after seeing that race, Roger Bannister entered Oxford University on a scholarship. He was only 17 years old and a little out of place on campus.   00:12:13    ROGER BANNISTER: I would say that my athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, but I actually arrived in Oxford in 1946, which was when a large number of ex-servicemen came back, and they had deferred entry to university in order to fight during the war. And so we were alongside veterans who, you know, wore medals and had been injured, and some of them, of course, had been relatively senior — promoted to senior ranks, you know, by losses on the battlefield.   00:12:49    So it was a very strange time, and in a sense, we had nothing in common with them except sport.   00:12:58    ALICE WINKLER: And that was another reason he wanted to race competitively at the college level, but it was not a foregone conclusion that he’d make the team. In fact, Bannister said, it was a big surprise when he did.   00:13:10    ROGER BANNISTER: It was a dreadful winter in 1947. Historically, there has never been a winter like it since, and the track was frozen, and they couldn’t have trials, and so I couldn’t prove that I could be on the team. And my previous best time was about five minutes, you know, won as a freshman’s race.   00:13:38    But I'd been seen shoveling away the snow rather vigorously, and so the captain — and sport is entirely run by students in Oxford — the captain said, "Well, look, just as a third string" — that means the third runner who is not expected to do anything — "why don’t we put him in?" And they put me in, and then on the race itself, I just overtook all the rest of the field and won, which is in a time which was 30 seconds faster than I had done before, but very modest, of course, four-and-a-half minutes.   00:14:16    And that was the beginning of an eight-year process in which every year I improved, and then after eight years I was near the world record.   00:14:30    ALICE WINKLER: But back in 1947, a four-and-a-half-minute mile was considered a great time. Everyone assumed Roger Bannister would compete in the ’48 Olympics, which were held in London, for goodness’ sake. He was invited to compete, but he declined.   00:14:46    ROGER BANNISTER: In those days, I didn’t train very much. We didn’t really know how to train in modern terms, and there was this thing called “burning yourself out,” and I didn't want to burn myself out at 18, and I had a notion that if I looked after myself, trained carefully, I would go on improving, not by training two to three hours a day, but by training three-quarters of an hour a day.   00:15:15    It seemed to me logical that you could go on improving and you didn't have to spend all day running. To me, running was an experiment. Here were muscles. Here was a heart. Here were lungs. To what extent can this bit of machinery be trained to do a very specific skilled task?   00:15:43    And I knew that the training had to fit the event. How do you manage to release physical and nervous energy over four minutes?   00:15:58    ALICE WINKLER: He approached training, in other words, as someone who’d studied physiology, which of course he had, and that’s why he decided he could go it alone without a coach.   00:16:10    ROGER BANNISTER: There was a coach, but I fell out with him. He said, "You do this," and I said, "Why do I do this?" And he said, "Well, you do this because I'm the coach and I tell you to do it." And he made me do a time trial, and he'd be holding a watch, and I'd say, you know, "What time did I do?" and he said, "Oh, don't worry about that."   00:16:34    So although he’d been quite well-known — he was actually a coach to someone called Jack Lovelock, who won the Olympic 1500 meters in Berlin in 1936. But, you know, I suppose I was always independent, and I felt about running that it was my task to find out what suited me and what didn't suit me. How much training could I do and then improve my performance and not let my performance go down because I was training too hard?   00:17:13    These were things which seemed to me so individual that nobody else was going to understand me to this degree. That was the reason why I pursued a rather lonely furrow, and I made the decision that I wouldn’t compete in the Olympic Games, and I reached a position in which I was being criticized in the press for not racing often enough. They said, "Here’s this chap, you know, and we think he’s good. We want to see him."   00:17:45    And I said, "Well, no. I mean I run if I want to run. There's nobody paying me to run. If I think that five races a year is right, and if I feel that I’ll work up towards a peak in the middle of the season, that’s what I’m going to do."   00:18:03    But everything came unstuck in a very big way because I pursued this kind of approach with a lot of press criticism, and eventually they said, "Well, okay, you know, if he wins the gold medal in Helsinki in 1952, he'll be right. He’s done the right thing."   00:18:25    ALICE WINKLER: And so Roger Bannister just went ahead, doing it in his own unorthodox — and you might even say eccentric — way.   00:18:34    ROGER BANNISTER: Every year, I suppose, I would be reducing my mile best time by two or three seconds, you know. Starting at 4:18 and then gradually coming down, and basically I was doing interval training. I had so many other interests that I wanted to have my evenings free, and I would usually miss lunch, and sometimes there were rather unimportant lectures at twelve o’clock.   00:19:07    So I would tend to take about two hours off to travel to a track, spend about 35 minutes running, but running very hard, and then just have a shower. Didn't warm up. Didn't warm down. Had a shower, would get something to eat and get back to the hospital by two o’clock.   00:19:31    ALICE WINKLER: And four years later, in 1952, he was ready to go for the gold.   00:19:38    ROGER BANNISTER: The management of the events in the Olympic Games was left to local organizers, and it was said afterwards that there had been a rather deliberate attempt just three weeks before the Helsinki Olympics — because I was the favorite — to change the program, and they had three races on three successive days, which were unnecessary.   00:20:06    Previously it had always been the heats, a day’s rest or two day’s rest, and a final, and that was what I was planning for. And I could have coped with it, but by the third day of these successive races, I didn't run. I knew in my heart that it was a virtually impossible task for me, and of course, with that frame of mind, too, it did prove impossible. I came fourth.   00:20:35    No British gold medals in the Helsinki Olympics, except for a horse called Foxhunter who won an equestrian event. Disaster, criticism for Bannister: "We told him he should train differently, and now it is proved."   00:21:00    It’s a defeat and a kind of humiliation which, yes, I had to get over it and prove to myself, if not to other people, that that was not the best I could do.   00:21:19    If I had won the gold medal, I would probably have retired because, you know, Olympic gold medal, 1500 meters, there was nothing higher, and would just go on with my work. But I felt angry with the press, angry with myself, angry with the organizers of the event. And I thought about it, and so, after thought, I decided it would be possible to work and go on training — medical training.   00:21:53    ALICE WINKLER: He wanted a chance to prove himself, and so he plotted out how he would improve his time enough, not just to beat his rivals, but to reach the holy grail, the sub-four-minute mile. He figured it would take him about two years using his slow and steady method. Bannister was now a full-time doctor in training at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, so his running regimen was even more restricted, but he was determined to prove his goal was possible, despite what anyone else thought.   00:22:29    ROGER BANNISTER: John Landy, my rival, ran four minutes and two seconds three or four times, and he used the phrase, “It’s like a wall.” Now, logically, I could not understand, as a physiologist, why a human being can run a mile in four minutes and two seconds and four minutes and one second, and why somebody else won't inevitably come along, train a little better, know that there's a target to be beaten, and beat it.   00:23:02    So that was my mental approach to it. It was just fortunate for me that the pathway of record-breaking, which continues in all aspects of athletics, had just reached this magical, critical four minutes, four laps, one minute each, on a quarter-mile track. That was really the reason why it had conspired to become a possible barrier, physical or psychological.   00:23:37    It wasn't, in my view, physical, but it did become, to some extent, psychological, and it was really an example — I don't know whether the word “paradigm” is correct — a paradigm of human achievement in a purely athletic sense. What limits are there to what the body can do?   00:23:58    MARC PACHTER: Yes.   00:23:58    ROGER BANNISTER: So it acquired this aura.   00:24:01    ALICE WINKLER: Roger Bannister didn’t wait for the European championship or any other grand competition. There was an upcoming meet at Oxford, his alma mater, and he thought it might just be the right moment. Bannister was running for the British Amateur Athletic Association against the Oxford team, and the race would be on the Iffley Road track, terrain Bannister knew very well. The date: May 6, 1954.   00:24:32    ROGER BANNISTER: The real problem was that May is a very early time in the year and the weather is usually bad, and you cannot run a fast mile race if there is a strong wind because the wind, although it may be behind you part of the time, it makes your running uneven. The only way that you can achieve a four-minute mile is to run it as evenly-paced as possible so that your energy expenditure is spread out and you mix your aerobic and anaerobic energy supplies in an appropriate and efficient way.   00:25:11    So the opportunity was there. The question was: Was the weather, which was very bad — it had been raining and it was windy — such that it was impossible to do it? And to try to do something when external circumstances make it impossible would have, you know, made me feel that it was a more difficult task. “Maybe there is a barrier about four minutes.”   00:25:41    My colleagues Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, who had agreed — were running on my side in the race against the university — had agreed to set a reasonable pace, and would I be able to get them to cooperate on some future occasion? Or might John Landy, who had then gone to Finland to be given the perfect opportunities in pacing, would he do it first?   00:26:07     So about 20 minutes before the race, the weather seemed to improve. I said, "Let’s do it," and so there we are. That was the setting.   00:26:17     ALICE WINKLER: Rumor has it that Roger Bannister actually made hospital rounds the morning of the race. He says that’s an exaggeration.   00:26:26     ROGER BANNISTER: I went into my hospital in London, St. Mary's, and I didn't do rounds, but what I did was I went into the physiological technician’s lab, and I sharpened the spikes. Because those were sticky tracks made of electricity ash with oil in them, and your spikes, which were really quite long then — not as they are now — would catch the material of the track and your shoe would get heavier.   00:27:09     And I was simply filing them down and rubbing some graphite on the spikes so that I thought I would run more effectively. I then got a train up to Oxford. I then had lunch with some long-term friends, and then spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the weather and going through — it was so strange, really, to be able to withhold the decision.   00:27:45     You might think that you have to have it in your mind actually honed on doing it continuously, but in my case, that wasn’t true. When I decided that it — the weather — I had to take the chance. The real thought in my mind — by then I did have a coach, Franz Stampfl, and we met by chance on the train. I didn't plan to do it, and he said, "If the weather is bad, what you have to remember is that: A) I think you can run it in 3:56," which is what a coach would say, so I didn't pay too much attention to that.   00:28:29    But the second thing he said is that "If you have an opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don’t take it, you may never have another chance," and it was that thought, I think, which eventually led me to attempt it.   00:28:44     ALICE WINKLER: The Iffley Road track, where the race was held, by the way, was later renamed the Roger Bannister Running Track, and 50 years later, Bannister’s running legs would end up on the 50 pence coin. Here’s Roger Bannister’s description of the race that day.   00:29:03     ROGER BANNISTER: I had done nothing for five days. I hadn’t trained. I’d just rested, and so I felt very full of running, and in the first lap I was following him, and I said, "Faster, faster," you know, an order, and in fact, he was going at absolutely the right pace. It was just that I was so full of running that I didn't feel that I was running fast. He ran the first lap very correctly in 00:58.   00:29:30     He took us to the half-mile in two minutes. Then Chataway took over, and he passed the three-quarter mile in three minutes, exactly as planned, and then I knew that I had — so we were then slowing down, inevitably, and I had to do the last lap in under 60 seconds.   00:29:56    ANNOUNCER: Any moment now, and we’ll see the famous Bannister burst.   00:29:59     ROGER BANNISTER: Then I overtook Chataway at the beginning of the next to the last bend, the end of the last — end of that bend — overtook him, and then just had to run as fast as I could to the finish.   00:30:14    ANNOUNCER: And here he comes. Bannister goes streaking forward with about 250 yards to the tapes. Just look at his action as his long legs carry him nearer that world record.   00:30:26     ROGER BANNISTER: I did collapse at the end, I think partly because if you don’t keep on running, keep your blood circulating, then you get a kind of failure. The muscles stop pumping the blood back, and you get dizzy, and I did lose my sight for a bit because I was crowded in by everybody rushed onto the track.   00:30:52    ANNOUNCER: And Bannister has done it! Though he's out on his feet, his coach and team manager tell him he's achieved his ambition, the mile in 3:59.4 seconds — a magnificent win for Great Britain.   00:31:04    ROGER BANNISTER: And then the whole of the track exploded, so that was it.   00:31:11    ANNOUNCER: Bannister, a medical student, has clipped Gunder Hägg's record by two seconds. With disarming modesty, he has this to say about his triumph.   00:31:19    ROGER BANNISTER: Well, all I can say is that I'm instantly overwhelmed and delighted. It was a great surprise to me to be able to do it today, and I think I was very lucky.   00:31:29    ALICE WINKLER: Soon after the race, Roger Bannister took six weeks to write down his thoughts about the gifts of running in a book called First Four Minutes. Its title was later changed to The Four-Minute Mile. After that, he went back to his love of running simply for pleasure. He became very involved in promoting sports for young people, and he used his celebrity to that end, but other than that, he didn’t have too much use for it.   00:31:57    ROGER BANNISTER: This is something that is a feature of the young. It’s simple, and it can be completed when one is 20, 25, as I was, and then it's finished. And in my case, I then turned to medicine, which was what my life was going to be. But it is a very curious exposure to fame and publicity, and it also gives you the opportunity to realize that these things are transient and essentially unimportant.   00:32:35    ALICE WINKLER: The practice of neurology became Roger Bannister’s primary passion. He worked as a clinical doctor and researcher. He wrote the first textbook about the diseases connected to the autonomic nervous system. That's the part of your nervous system that controls unconscious actions like breathing, sweating, and circulation. He made contributions significant enough to earn him a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Neurology. Those are the contributions, he says, that he is most proud of in his life.   00:33:12    Just a year ago, in 2015, Sir Roger decided to raise money to help others carry on the medical research he devoted his career to, so he put his history-making running shoes up for auction. What better use for the fame and glory he earned as a 25-year-old? They sold for 266,000 British pounds or over 400,000 dollars.   00:33:41    This is What It Takes from the Academy of Achievement. I’m Alice Winkler. What It Takes is generously funded by the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation.   END OF FILE

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2EOaHmw
via IFTTT

US Agency Changes ‘Nation of Immigrants’ Mission Statement

  The United States government agency that oversees immigration has changed its mission statement. The new version no longer describes the U.S. as a “nation of immigrants.” The director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, L. Francis Cissna, wrote an email about the change to USCIS employees on Thursday. A letter about the change from Cissna is also published on the agency’s website. The new mission statement says: “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.” Cissna said he believes “the simple, straightforward statement clearly defines the agency’s role” in carrying out immigration laws and responsibilities to the American people. The earlier mission statement said the agency “secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants…” The phrase “nation of immigrants” has a long history in American political speeches. Most recent presidents from both political parties, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, have used the phrase to describe America. It is thought to have been used as far back as the 19th century. It described a country where people of many cultures and nationalities added to what has been long described as a “melting pot.” The phrase also appears as the title of a book, “A Nation of Immigrants,” by former president John F. Kennedy. The book was published after this death. Cissna said that he no longer wants the agency to call immigration applicants and petitioners its “customers.” He said he believes the agency is meant to first serve “the American people.” U.S. Census Bureau information from 2014 shows that there were at least 42 million immigrants, both legal and illegal, in the country. That number has continued to grow. Critics say the mission statement change raises questions about the country’s continued willingness to accept immigrants. They note the importance of America’s promise to those coming to this country. The new statement for the immigration agency does keep the word “promise” in it. The inscription on the Statue of Liberty in New York City reads “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The lines do not have the word “immigrant” in them, nor does the poem that the inscription is based on. However, it is clear what the subject of the inscription truly is. I’m Mario Ritter.   Mario Ritter wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.​ _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   integrity –n. the quality of being honest and fair adjudicate –v. to make an official decision about who is right in a dispute or to decide on a petition role –n. the part played by a person or group in an effort or organization phrase –n. words that express a single idea but are not usually a complete sentence commercial –adj. describing business activity for profit  

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2CeVDwx
via IFTTT

Atlanta Airport Announces Flights to Black Panther's Wakanda

  This is What’s Trending Today… Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world. With more than 2,500 flights coming and going each day, it serves over 100 million passengers a year. So what is the latest offering? A nonstop flight to Wakanda. If you have not heard of Wakanda, you probably have not seen Black Panther, the new superhero movie from Marvel Comics. The film tells the story of an imaginary African nation called Wakanda. It is the home of the Black Panther himself, Prince T’Challa. In its opening weekend, Black Panther earned a record-setting $235 million in American theaters. It is the number-one movie in the world. Black Panther has connections to Atlanta, Georgia; part of it was filmed in the city. Earlier this week, the Atlanta Airport decided to have some fun. It tweeted a photograph of a departure gate sign that read: “Wakanda. 7:30 p.m.” It also wrote, “The bags are packed! #WakandaForever.” ​In the film, Wakanda is a developed, technologically advanced country. It is both extremely modern and deeply traditional. It has never belonged to a foreign power. Many Twitter users seemed extremely excited to book a one-way flight to Wakanda. Some people had questions about the trip, including the food and entertainment available. The Atlanta Airport responded to many of their requests. Even actor Lupita Nyong’o, who stars in Black Panther, wanted to know what films would be shown en route to Wakanda. Her movie suggestions were a play on real movie titles, but changed to include Black Panther names and characters. The airport’s idea to announce a fictional flight from Atlanta to Wakanda reportedly came from Atlanta-area chef Darius Williams. A video on Facebook shows Williams asking an airline employee to help him book a flight from Atlanta to Wakanda. The employee treated him with respect...but was understandably confused! And that’s What’s Trending Today. I’m Jonathan Evans.   Ashley Thompson wrote this report based on an Associated Press report and several other sources. George Grow was the editor.  ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   departure - n. the act of leaving a place especially to start a journey bag  n. a container made of thin material (such as paper, plastic, or cloth) that opens at the top and is used for holding or carrying things packed - adj. used to say that you have finished putting things into bags, boxes, etc. advanced - adj. far along in a course of progress or development entertainment  - n. amusement or pleasure that comes from watching a performer, playing a game, etc. respond -  v. to say or write something as an answer to a question or request en route - adv. on or along the way when you are going to a place character  - n. a person who appears in a story, book, play, movie, or television show chef - n.  a professional cook who usually is in charge of a kitchen in a restaurant confused - adj. unable to understand or think clearly

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2oreTxI
via IFTTT

Trump Addresses Tougher Gun-Control Measures

  American President Donald Trump is calling for stronger gun control measures. He commented one day after an emotional meeting with survivors of school shootings. Trump repeated his call to permit some teachers to carry guns at schools. On Twitter, he wrote that “highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent” and the “ATTACKS WOULD END!” Trump also tweeted: “I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks!" Last week, a 19-year-old gunman shot and killed 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The gunman used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that he purchased legally. Trump’s tweets and calls for action represent the strongest position on gun control from the president so far. But a White House official told the Associated Press that Trump was not supporting or ruling out any one policy. Trump did not immediately offer more details. During his presidential campaign, Trump embraced gun rights and received the support of the National Rifle Association, or NRA. In his tweets Thursday morning, Trump repeated his support for the NRA. He wrote, “the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing.”   Wayne LaPierre is head of the NRA. He spoke Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington, D.C. It was his first public appearance since the Parkland school shooting. LaPierre did not address Trump’s recent comments. But he did accuse Democrats of using the tragedy for “political gain.” He said, “To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun.” LaPierre said the same thing after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty six students and teachers were killed in that attack. On Wednesday, the NRA said it would reject any proposal to raise the minimum age for buying a gun. In a statement, it said, “Legislative proposals that prevent law-abiding adults aged 18-20 years old from acquiring rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them for purchasing any firearm, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to self-protection.” The current federal minimum age for buying or owning handguns is 21. But the limit is 18 for buying rifles -- including military-style assault weapons such as the AR-15 used in the Florida shooting. The NRA’s statement signaled a difficult road ahead for any proposal to strengthen gun control measures. Legislative efforts to pass gun control measures after other mass shootings all failed because they lacked enough support. Chuck Schumer is the Democratic Party leader in the United States Senate. He said the real test for Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress is “not words and sympathy, but action.” Schumer asked on Twitter, “Will President Trump and the Republicans finally buck the @NRA and get something done? Could this time be different?” At the White House meeting on Wednesday, Trump listened to Samuel Zeif, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.  "I turned 18 the day after, I woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. And I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war. An AR. I was reading today that a person, 20 years old, walked into a store and bought an AR-15 in five minutes with an expired I.D. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How do we not stop this after Columbine? After Sandy Hook?” I'm Caty Weaver.   Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English based on AP and other news reports. Ashley Thompson was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   deterrent - adj. something that makes someone decide not to do something embrace - v. to accept something or someone readily and gladly prohibit - v. to order someone not to use or do something buck - v. to oppose or resist  

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2EOCRJW
via IFTTT

February 22, 2018

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

from Voice of America http://ift.tt/2GCZv8G
via IFTTT